


The Truth Gets Out

by sldlovestv18



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: AU sort of?, Fluff, Gen, Lots of others - Freeform, a bit of angst, and throws the rest away, author takes the things she likes about Boruto, it’s a bit of a clusterfuck, just a lot, this got out of hand.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:34:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28720545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sldlovestv18/pseuds/sldlovestv18
Summary: The truth about the Uchiha Massacre gets out to the public. We explore what might happen after that.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20





	The Truth Gets Out

**Author's Note:**

> So... this got out of hand. It started a sort of vent fic because I find the fact that the Uchiha Massacre us a secret to cause... problems. But from there it got out of hand a spilled into nonsense. Oops.

The general public’s opinion on Sasuke Uchiha changed over the years, but after nearly 20 years, most people had settled on that his story was sad. There were forgive in forget types, who thought it was sad that Sasuke was still torturing himself over what happened. Everybody heard the rumors, whispered around the world. That he continually refuses to get a new arm as penance, he has a daughter he doesn’t see because he’s so busy trying redeem himself, even though most people had already moved on. He was evil for 3 years, and he was 36 now, it was clear that that wasn’t who was anymore. Then, there were the forgive but never forget types, who didn’t really mind that he was still bent out of shape. He shouldn’t ever forget what he did, the families of all those samurai he killed never would. The Kage he fought never would. But, they could still agree that he, as unbelievably powerful as he was, was pitiful. Sad. 

Then there were the former and current Kage, except the ones from the hidden leaf, who were mostly just confused, and got more confused all the time. Because they, along with other officials, had more information. They worked with him, gave him missions, saw him every once in a while, received report of Sasuke-like figure swooping in and saving small villages in their area. As more time passed, and it became more clear that he really had changed, questions came up. Everybody in higher government positions in the world kept an ear out about the last Uchiha after the massacre, maybe they could borrow him from the leaf if he was as good as his clan name would suggest. All the word out of the leaf village was positive until the boy abandoned the leaf. Then it was increasingly more distressing rumors and news of him taking down S class missing-nin until he was at their door trying to kill them all. And then, an impossibly short amount of time later he was just snapped out of it. For the first few years, nobody really trusted the change. It didn’t seem real, or even possible, but as time went on it was clear that he’d actually changed. At this point, he’d done a lot more good then he did evil, which was more then what could have been said of other pardoned war criminals. Which made them all wonder what they weren’t being told, because their had to be more to it then what they were told. 

Then the truth came out. Because Naruto has a big mouth, and is also an idiot. Someone said something about wartime Sasuke, and Naruto, distracted and tired after hours of mind numbing paperwork, blurts out something about Sasuke’s motives, about the massacre. It was just enough that things spiraled. Before Naruto or Sasuke, or any of the others who were keeping the secret even knew what happened, the whole thing was out. There was absolute chaos. For one thing, Kakashi and Naruto ended up with egg on their face when the world found out that they kept two people who advocated and covered up a genocide of almost all of a clan on Konaha’s council. (Sasuke backed them on a lot of things, that was not one of them. It ended up being the first genuine fight they had in years.) Naruto never thought that the world wide reaction would be this bad. 

As it turned out, genocide of an entire clan was not a reasonable response to a coupe to most of the world. Arrest the leaders. Sure. Kill the leaders and replace them with people loyal to the village? Fine. Kill everyone? No. The amount of people who thought that the Uchiha had that coming to them was puny. It looked bad to the villagers of the leaf, but it looked worse to the outside. Some people wanted to dismantle the village all together, they were on the brink of war for weeks. Naruto was trying to put out fires left, right, and center. 

And then Sasuke went forward and gave a statement. It made the war threats go away, but it also made things so much worse. 

Sasuke usually expressed himself with his actions. When he used his words, he either used as little words as he could or he used all his words. This time he used all his words. It was already bad, so people might as well know. He told the entire story, from the seeds during Madara’s time, to the lead up, to the day. Delivered stoically, like he was giving a mission report. It was quiet. Then they asked how he knew, did this have something to do with what happened when he committed all those crimes. And since he was already ripping open that wound anyway, he told his story. From the day of the massacre to the war. Detailed, delivered with the same detachment as before. Too detailed, really, with word by word quotes, way too much description. Sasuke was a man of few words for a reason: when he started he didn’t know where to stop. Until he stopped. 

Nobody knew what to do, let alone what to think of Sasuke. Here was the lone victim of all this, defending the village that caused that damage in the first place. Nevermind the obvious manipulation that he went through. Sasuke had given them the whole picture, and it turned out they didn’t want it. This was all secret for a reason, it was just too tragic. Things went back to normal after that interview, they wanted to respect Sasuke’s wish to protect the village, a thing he’d been adamant about since the start.

Everybody was sure now: Sasuke Uchiha had a sad story, more sad then they ever knew. Sasuke had left no room for confusion anymore. Things were back to peaceful, but everything still felt a tiny bit worse then before. 

————————————————————————

Sasuke hated everything about this. The only small grace he got was he got to tell his story to Sarada after she confronted him when the truth ripped it’s way to the public. It was startling how understanding she was about the whole thing, she had given him a hug and told him it was okay. After that the dark jokes started, and that honestly made him feel better than the hug. Honestly, she seemed more upset with her mother for remaining in love with and marrying a man tried to kill her several times. ‘Dad was traumatized and manipulated into thinking that he had to do that-‘ Sasuke tried to say he wasn’t manipulated and was ignored ‘-what’s your excuse?’ They have mostly smoothed that over, with Sakura getting her own dark jokes thrown at her. She did not enjoy them as much as he enjoyed his. 

Everybody looked at him different. He was used to people looking at him. There had an aura around him that made people eye him even if they didn’t know he was the Sasuke Uchiha. The way the others, the Konaha 11 not including Naruto and Sakura, looked at him was the worst. If he gets one more look of pity from one of them he’s going to chuck them through a wall. They felt bad. For the first several years after the war, it was all ‘we’ll never forgive you, not matter what you went through’ and ‘no matter how sorry you are, you’re still scum’. Things softened up eventually. A few of them got actual apologies. They’d begun to be friendly, but now that they knew, well... Some them felt bad. They hadn’t considered that it had been anything that intense. Sai was almost cool, but he’d been a lot more forgiving and understanding; he was also a bit more removed from the original friend group than the others. And as a team member of Naruto’s, he had adopted some of Naruto’s beliefs. He didn’t want pity, he hated it. He’d made his choices, even if he was influenced heavily, they were his choices. He had to make up for it. 

Before this, a few people tried to convince him he’d done enough, that he should take that arm. That number has gone up a bit. There was a few people that agreed that he still need to pay as much as he believed he did, but it was a dwindling few and most seemed to share some sentiment with the others. 

And now he’s been called to Naruto’s office. This can only mean bad things. He opened the door, and Naruto was being flanked by Kakashi and Shikamaru with Sakura standing in corner. 

This was going to suck.

“How bad is it?” The sharingan used asked, resigning himself to what was about to happen. He sat down in front of the desk, Sakura coming up behind him and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Pretty bad.” Shikamaru said bluntly, with Kakashi nodding in agreement. Naruto glared at them both.

“It sounds bad, but it’ll be an easy fix!” Naruto tried to appease, using what Sakura had called his ‘Hokakage voice.’

“Spit it out.”

“I can’t send you out on missions anymore. You’re banned from field work, effective immediately.” 

“What-“ His eyes flared to life, and he tried to stand but Sakura held him down.

“I know it sounds bad! But it can be fixed as soon as you meet a few requirements.” Naruto leaned forward. “The world community is worried, in light of recent events, that you might not be stable. They could understand your behaviors when they thought that you just completely snapped for no reason, and before they knew about all the... influence that was pushed on you. Now that they know, it’s seems a little extreme.”

“What did you say to them? You’ve always-“ Sasuke glared.

“Naruto may have been saying you needed to go easier on yourself for years, but people came to this conclusion on their own.” Kakashi said, crossing his arms. “And quite frankly, I agree. You know that I believe you need to repent for the rest of your life, but this thing where you distance yourself from everybody, refuse a prosthetic as some sort of punishment, and kick yourself has gone on too long. You can repent without doing all that.” Sasuke opened his mouth to answer, but Naruto started in. 

“All you have to do to get cleared for the field is get cleared by a therapist and get that arm!”

“No. No way.” 

“And after that we need to put an end to your missing nin status. Reinstate you, and then get on the fast track to jonin!”

“No.”

“Do you want to do missions?”

“Yes.”

“Then you have to.”

“Why?”

“The fact the that you’re keeping yourself handicapped on purpose is concerning to several parties, including all you friends. The brooding is getting concerning at your age. I’m in hot water and having important missions done by a missing nin is going to get me in deeper trouble.”

“I’m fine.” Sasuke asserts firmly. “I don’t need any of that, I’m not a victim-“

“You are. Just because you were a wacked out criminal doesn’t change that fact.”

“I need atone-“

“You have!” Everybody shouted. 

“You’ve spent years wondering around in solitude, you’ve saved the world a few times, the amount of lives you’ve saved outnumber the number of people you harmed back then. You’ve saved Sakura and I’s asses more time then you ever tried to kill us. You are atoned.” Naruto flung his arms out, nearly hitting the two by his side.

“And you can keep atoning, by staying good and doing your job. Protecting the village. You can still do that with two arms, a clearer head and a better understanding of what happened to you.” It was Shikamaru who said that. “We aren’t saying to forget. You should never forget the terrible pain you caused, but this has to stop. You’ve done way more good than bad, you can ease up a bit.” 

“I...” He looked down, his heart thumping uncomfortably in his chest. “I don’t deserve-“

“Stop it. Stop saying that.” His wife said, voice anguished, he turned to look at her and she pierced him with her gaze, sucking him into it. “Just because you were bad for three years doesn’t mean you have to do this forever. Feel bad, remember, sure but you beat yourself up, punish yourself. And even if you don’t deserve it, what about me?” 

“... You?”

“Don’t I deserve a happy, stable husband? Who is less distant, and can hold me and our children in both his arms? Who has an actual job on record? You do all this, and I could get an actual husband!” Sakura took his face in her hands and the others in the room started getting uncomfortable. “I love you, which is why I’ve let you do this. It’s why I know you’ll never be normal, but if you could get just a bit better. Go to therapy, learn to open up so then maybe we can communicate better. So you can understand yourself and what happened better. You’ve told me stories about when you and Itachi were kids. You’ll probably never be that happy again, but maybe if you do this, we’ll get close.” 

Sasuke stared at her and considered it. Sakura understood him better than anyone else, but they had still had issues. After the threat of death by chakra sucking space ogres was cleared and they had a second child, a son, things should have settled but Sasuke didn’t want to be still. He didn’t deserve that much good, and being in the village, no matter how much he wants to protect it, was painful for a few reasons. But his family deserved better. He boosted up and gave Sakura a kiss.

“Hn.” Sasuke grunted after Sakura let him go.

“He’ll do it.”

“Great.” Naruto grinned and Kakashi and Shikamaru looked like they were dying. “One more thing.” Naruto took something out and slid it across the desk. 

“That’s a check.” He didn’t bother looking at the amount, staring Naruto down.

“Yeah.”

“Why?” 

“Since you are officially now the only survivor of a government ordered genocide and not a random massacre, legally you’re entitled to compensation.”

“A reparation check.”

“Yeah. You’ll get one once a month for awhile. Pain and suffering and all that.”

“No.”

“You can not deposit it, but you have to take it.”

“No.”

“Take it.”

“Fine...” The Uchiha snatched the check. “And about the arm-“

“You said you’d take it!”

“I know! But I can handle it myself with the rinnegan. I did some research, because I should know all about this eye. One of them can grow extra arms. With some concentration, I can probably grow it back myself.” Sasuke shifted his cloak around so his stump side was revealed. His hand did some seals and he muttered a word under his breath. And there it was, a new arm. Sasuke clenched and unclenches the hand. “Huh. Didn’t think it would actually work.”

“You could just grow one this whole time? It was that easy.”

“It wasn’t as easy as it looked. That took plenty of chakra since I’ve never used that path before.” 

“Why haven’t you?” 

“Can you see me launching my fists or growing blades from my body?”

“No. Maybe that was a stupid question. You should, though! If you’d bother trying to master the rinnegan you could kick even more ass then you already do!”

“I used the Preta path sometimes. I use the Deva path on a microscopic scale from time to time. The others aren’t interesting or have limited use. Like Animal Path? Aoda and Garuda are great, I don’t need-“ he stopped speaking when Sakura started examining his arm. “Sakura?”

“Amazing.” Sakura ran glowing hands over it. “It’s such an odd mix of flesh and metal... like living metal... it’s got chakra paths and everything...”

“Having fun?”

“Rest this arm for awhile before preforming any powerful jutsu with it. Doctors orders.”

“Alright.”

————————————————————————

They had created a monster.

Sasuke hadn’t turned back to evil and hate, no, he would never. That just wasn’t him, and he had no reason to to be mad anymore. It was just they had no idea what a Sasuke with two arms and was getting mental help would look like. (He’d been cleared for field work as long he kept going to therapy. He agreed.) The only people that had any idea was Naruto and Hinata. 

First thing: having two arms was a lot more of a hindrance then anybody thought it was. Sasuke was such a force nobody ever thought it was problem. The one person who knew was Naruto. And it shouldn’t have been a surprise when the man boasted how strong the Uchiha was, even after his feats started exceeding his. 

“What? Of course he’s gotten so much stronger with two arms. Seals are important to jutsu, one handed seals work, but they have a bit less punch. I tried a few before I got the arm. A lot less oomf. It’s harder to mold chakra. Complicated ones might not work at all.” A Shadow Clone Naruto had said when asked, like it was most obvious thing in the world, become running off to go get a cat out of a tree. 

Second thing: Was he getting more chakra? He really seemed to be charging chidori quickly. No, but pretty much. The one not surprised: Hinata. 

“Chakra pathways are knotted and blocked by mental and emotional turmoil. When we were kids, Sasuke always bested Naruto even though he had less chakra because he could control it better. Both of their chakra paths were sort of tangled and knotted. Even though Naruto and Sasuke were learning control at an equal rate, Naruto eventual caught up to and surpassed Sasuke because his pathways cleared when he started getting accepted by the village and become more comfortable with his tailed beast. Sasuke’s paths are clearing up.” 

Sasuke had become unstoppable. His mind had become clearer then ever and that made him even more effective in battle. People were starting to think Naruto’s assertion that Sasuke could fight the world might be right. 

The thing that shocked people most was when he showed up to a group gathering for the first time... ever. 

The people from their year of ninja school, and a few other teams, liked to meet up with their families and hang out, usually only once or twice a year with how busy they all are. Sasuke had never shown up, even if he was in town. Which made sense, Sasuke never went out with anyone who wasn’t his team when they were young. He didn’t really like gatherings. He didn’t really like anything, if they didn’t know better they’d say he didn’t even like his wife. But here he was, Sakura at his side, holding his hand, Sarada at his other side, his one year old son, Satoshi, in his new arm. It might have been a heartwarming sight if Sasuke didn’t have that blank look on his face.

“Sasuke! You came!” Naruto shouted from clear across the room, attracting everybody’s attention. 

“Are you, or is this a clone?”

“Ha!” The jinkuriki chuckled nervously, waving a hand. “I got a clone doing the last of today’s paperwork. What’s with the hand holding? I didn’t think you knew how to do that.” Naruto said, already halfway to him. 

“That’s private.” Sasuke narrowed his eye, trying to be threatening. 

“His therapist says he needs more casual touch. Since you’re his best friend, you should to. Little things, like you already do but maybe a bit more.” Sakura deadpanned and her husband looked at her in what she and Naruto recognized as betrayal. “What? It’s not it’s a secret, every Konaha ninja knows.”

“Hn.” Sasuke grunted, looking away. 

“So it’s going well?” Naruto was over to them and most people went back to what they were doing, except Sai and Shikamaru, who were heading over.

“It is.” Sakura grinned and Sasuke couldn’t help but look at her. She smiled like that a lot more now, it was his favorite thing about this whole this whole getting better adjusted thing. 

“Sasuke, didn’t expect you here.” Shikamaru half waved a hand as he reached them. 

“It is unexpected.” Sai.

“This is a group event, for a group I’m apart of.” Sasuke muttered, annoyed. 

“Yeah, but you don’t really do group events. I mean, I don’t blame, they’re such a hassle. I barely want to do them.” The shadow ninja shoved his hands in his pockets.

“I thought it might be good to get out.”

“You’re therapist told you you should get out and interact with people more, didn’t they?” Sai said and Sasuke looked away, confirming his theory. “The therapist Ino made me see after we got married said the same thing. Importance of social structures to human health and all that.”

“They also added on ‘it’s time for you to rejoin society’.” Sasuke looked embarrassed, or as embarrassed as he could look with that permanently indifferent face. “Satoshi is getting restless.” He was not. “I’m going to go find a quiet place to sooth him.” And he was gone. The three shinobi close rank around the two kunoichi.

“So, how is it going?” 

“He’s fine, Naruto.” Sakura gave a soft, reassuring smile. “He’s starting to relax a bit, or he’s as relaxed as a shinobi like him gets. We still haven’t quite convinced him that some of those rules are outdated nonsense, and that some of them should probably only be followed in the field.” 

“Most of the ninja we know don’t follow them to the letter. I’m the most powerful thing on the planet and I literally follow my own ninja way.” The blonde hokage huffed.

“He’s stubborn.” The medical nin shrugged. “He’s starting loosen up, I mean he’s still Sasuke but he’s starting act a bit more like an actual husband, so that’s great.”

“After he checks all the traps he set up around the outside of house he relaxes. Well, relaxes as much as he can. I saw him fall asleep in the living room with the baby on his lap. He’s never done anything like that before. He also woke up when I got within three steps of him, because he’s still papa, but I think that’s a good sign.” Sarada said, peaking over at the corner her father had lodged himself in. 

“Good. That’s good for all you. Hopefully it keeps up.”

“We’re all hoping he can get better. We had no idea...”

“Would you stop that.” Sakura scolded. “It was a secret, and Sasuke is shy. He doesn’t like being pitied, so just-“

“We know! We all know, it’s just hard. He might have gone really bad, but if we had known...” 

“You’d have still been mad. He took things way too far. The only thing that’d have changed is you’d have forgiven easier. Sasuke didn’t want it to be easy.” 

“I guess...” 

“Hey! I’m going to borrow her!” Ino clucked, showing up out of nowhere to pluck Sakura away to drag her over to where the women had congregated. Sarada took the opportunity to escape away to find Boruto. 

“What do want, InoPig?”

“We want that gossip! We wanna know about Sasuke. We haven’t all met up since that all started. Spill.” 

“You know I hate gossiping...”

“Oh, but you’ll stand there while we all talk about our husbands or boyfriends for the last twenty years? Come on, you never share any good stuff. Hinata shares more and she’s the shyest person on the planet.” Ino crossed her arms, pouting. The others seemed to agree.

“I have to say, I’m curious...” Hinata blushed, clasping her hands together and looking at her toes. “What’s it even like, being married to a guy like that... raising kids... having... you know...”

“Hinata.” Sakura admonished, looking around to make sure no one was listening. 

“You’re the only person who knows what is like to be with somebody of Sasuke and Naruto’s power, c-comparing could be nice.”

“That’s different, Hinata, I might not be able to do the same feats as them but I’m just as strong, I’ve got better chakra control then- it’s different. You’re very strong! I’m not saying you can’t handle it-“

“You, Sasuke, and Naruto are like the new Sannin 3.”

“Yeah.”

“Still, you should share. Every girl in the village has had a crush on Sasuke, and now you have him. Plus, he’s been opening up with all that help he’s been getting, right? That has to be an adventure.” 

“It has been. He’s relaxed, well we are never totally relaxed, because we are ninja, but...”

“As much as ninja can get.”

“Right. Look... Sasuke doesn’t use his words much. He’s an action man. We’ve talked a little, but it’s mostly the small things... We go about our mornings in nice silence, but knowing we love eachother. We don’t need to say it, because we know. Lately, he’s been touching me more. It’s how he is more open with me. Before, when we’d go to make breakfast, we’d have a nice smile and we’d get to cooking. Now, he’ll brush his fingers against mine, or brush my hair out of my face. It’s... stuff like that.” 

“Sounds boring... but sweet. Like something from a really old romance novel.” 

“What about the sex?” Karui asked and Sakura turned red. The others snickered.

“I don’t-“

“You have two kids. You have the first one very early in your marriage, and got pregnant with the second within a year of Sasuke being home most of the time. You’re obviously active.” 

“Is it that he’s kinky? I hear the quiet ones are kinky.” 

“No! It’s just... Sasuke isn’t a very sexual person. He’s very shy about it, and he generally tries to pretend that he doesn’t have sexual impulses at all.” Sakura’s already present blush worsened. 

“Really, I mean, he’s still a dude.”

“One time I made direct eye contact with his erection and asked him if he wanted something and he looked me in the face and said no.”

“Damn.”

“It’s not like he’s bad, though. He was quick learner, he gets really determined about... making me happy? If you get me. He used his shirangan a few times to pick up small reactions, and... he does a good job. He’s not really romantic or sexy about it... but he’s Sasuke, he’s... talented at everything that doesn’t have to do with emotions and people.”

“And nothing has changed at all?”

“Well...” Sakura looked down and the girls started to coo. “Shut up. Look, because he’s an action guy, sex was always the time we were most open. It’s his second highest expression of love. Lately, he’s started to be a little more into it, I guess. His hands are getting a bit more... grope-y.” 

The group burst into snickers and whistles and little comments. 

“You guys are terrible.” Sakura huffed, face still red, “If you want gossip, I can tell you about something embarrassing he did.”

“Sasuke? Embarrassing?” Ino frowned, looking at the others. They didn’t believe it either. “I didn’t think a guy like that knew how to be embarrassing to anyone but his daughter.”

“I’ve seen the guy make a facial expression about five times.” Temari raised a brow. “That guy? Did something embarrassing?”

“Last week Sasuke farted in-front me for the first time.” Sakura said, confident that would pull the subject off of sex. 

“What? The first time?”

“Never before? You’ve known each other since the academy, you were on the same team. That means camping out on long trips. Surely-“

“Nope. Naruto, plenty, not a peep out of Sasuke’s tushy.”

“You’re married. Sure, he’s been away for a lot of it but in the first couple years, or these last few...”

“No.”

“On one hand, lucky you, on the other, that’s a bit... weird.” Ino pursed her lips. “I mean if you can do it in another room you should, but if you can’t toot in-front of your spouse, who can you? That’s the person you’re most comfortable with.” 

“I know, right?” Sakura gasped. “I was so worried about it at the start of the relationship. Cause I had done it a long time before but he hadn’t. Eventually I just figured it was his conservative upbringing and dropped it. I know it’s impossible but I thought he maybe didn’t know how.”

“I wish I had that problem, I’m ready to put a cork in Shikamaru. Apparently going to a different room is troublesome.” That earned some snickers. 

“So imagine my surprise last week, we are all together, Satoshi is in his highchair, Sarada is feeding him cereal while we make breakfast. He’s just about done with the eggs, and he just rips one. He cocks buttcheek and rips a horrendous dad fart.” The women who were mothers nodded in understanding. “And we all look at him during, and when he finishes he just says excuse me. Like he didn’t just shatter our reality. We lived in a reality where he was this uptight, conservative man who might not even have an asshole and he just farted it to pieces. Excuse me, he says.”

“What did you do?”

“We laughed at him. The baby laughed so hard he was almost purple, and while Sarada tried calming him down even though though she was cackling the baby farted, caused Sarada to declare ‘it’s both of them!’ and start laughing so hard I thought she was going to drop him.”

“And Sasuke?”

“Started to pout and call us childish. Then I started teasing him.” 

“This is way better than a sex story.” TenTen chuckled. “At least he getting more comfortable around you after knowing you so long.”

“Yeah.”

“Have I ever told about the time Naruto made a baby Himawari puke and a young Boruto cry with a silent but deadly?” 

“No, but I absolutely need to know. I could always use more things to tease our hokage with.” 

Sasuke was highly suspect about whatever the women were talking about in that corner of the room. He was now willing to admit that his social skills were pretty shot after years of vengeance seeking and penative self isolation. All the vigilance in the world has not saved him from doing things that embarrassed his daughter. He’s good with the baby, because he’s known him his whole life. He getting better, though. Sakura has told him as much. But he did know that it was never a good thing when women grouped. Women gossip in groups. Sakura has seen and heard him do and say thing he’d rather not be told. Especially these last few months. He decided to distract himself with the baby. The little one had soft, black spiky hair with the cutest little pink patches in it. Big dark green eyes because even though Sakura’s green got through his genetics were strong and so here Satoshi was with forest green eyes. He had a serious disposition for a baby, like Itachi always said he had as a little one and as he knew Sarada had. Satoshi didn’t like it when anybody outside of the family held him. The last time Naruto tried he’d thrown a fit so hard that he’d nearly gave the blonde a black eye. Sasuke gave him a treat for that. He loved his son, he loved all his family, but something about his son was different. Maybe it was that besides the pink patches and eyes he was a clone of Sasuke. It was like looking in an adorable mirror. 

“Hey, you okay over here?” Shikamaru asked, breaking him from his train of thought. The former missing nin grunted and looked back at his son. “Good... sorry, for pushing earlier. You know how Sai is. We’re just worried, we want to make sure things are going okay after all that.” 

“It’s fine.”

“I know your still cagey about it, but as detailed as that report you gave was, you had to have left out a lot. It was pretty much your life story. If you ever you want to talk, you can talk to your friends, to us. We care. I’m sure your shrink has mentioned something about opening up.”

“That wouldn’t be troublesome?” Sasuke smirked. 

“Helping a friend is never troublesome. Naruto taught me that.” Silence ruled, until Shikamaru broke it. “Cute kid you got.”

“He’s great.”

“He’s a little you.” Shikamaru said with a lazy grin. “Can I hold him? It’s been forever since I got to hold a baby.”

“He’ll throw a fit, he doesn’t like people.”

“Babies like me, try me.”

“Hn.” He passed over the littlest Uchiha. Satoshi squirmed for a second, making a few whine-like sounds before settling down and resting his head against Shikamaru’s chest. “Huh. That’s a first.”

“Told you.” 

Maybe this has a sign he should... share something. Shikamaru was right, his therapist had mentioned that he should find people to talk to. If Satoshi trusted him, maybe...

“My brother used to tell me...” Sasuke started and that got the others attention. Sasuke never spoke about his brother. When they were kids he referred to him as ‘that person’ and ‘a certain someone’. After he died people thought he never said anything because he killed him but after the truth got out, after the report... he clearly wasn’t able to before without opening a can of worms. “When I was baby, I’d cry when anyone besides him or my mother held me. I could barely stand even my dad. My brother had a girl he liked... she would always try and and hold me, but I’d through a fit. She’d get disappointed because she wanted to get close to him. He’d always protest, but he always let her try. I think he was hoping she would gain my approval.” 

“The worlds tiniest cockblock.”

“Oi, watch your mouth. Satoshi has been repeating things he hears. If he says that infront of Sakura we all die.”

“Right.”

“... The ANBU made records of all the bodies before they had to burn them in a funeral pyre. To many to bury at once. Risk of disease. I found the records a while ago. Katana wounds, all of them, but I knew that from the bodies I had found myself. But that girl, Izumi... she died of mysterious causes. She had no external wounds. I think... he might have killed her with his genjutsu, as a kindness. When he showed me what happened himself... he spared me some of it. Because even when he was supposed to be giving all his truth, he still couldn’t. The one thing I had that he didn’t? Honesty. Purity, hard as that may be to believe.” 

They were also probably burned to hid the fact that Danzo and Obito/Madara had stolen the eyes of most of the dead Uchiha. Because nothing in that was clear of the deceit and evil that happened that day. 

“You are freakishly blunt, I’ll give you that. I think I’ve seen you put off telling the truth more then I’ve seen you lie.” Sasuke grunted and looked down at his boy, petting his hair. “Thanks for telling me that. It must have been troublesome.”

“You could say that.” Sasuke paused, looking thoughtful. “Also... sorry. For all the trouble I caused when we were young. I only ever apologized to Sakura and Naruto, and let my actions apologize to everyone else. Redemption journey. But I’ve been told that I should probably say it out loud. I put you in a situation where you had to decide to kill a comrade and friend of a friend. It was wrong of me.”

“Your brother and Orochimaru pushed you. Obito tried to use you. You were thirteen and had people older and more powerful pushing you and promising you things. You are still responsible, but so are they. I also held onto a grudge far after you proved that you’d changed. That wasn’t fair of me, and I’m sorry. If I can trust Garra as a Kage, I should have been able to trust you.”

“I know... and it’s okay...” 

“...I also never thanked you for speaking up against Sarada becoming chunin three years ago. I didn’t know how to say I thought my boy was better suited without sounding like I was playing favorites.” 

“She wasn’t ready yet. It’s that simple, she made it the next time she tried.” Sasuke shrugged. “You have a good kid.” 

He looked over to where the kids had grouped up. Sarada was leaned up against Boruto, a thing that made sense because they were, ugh, dating. Sasuke tried not to glare but must have failed because the man next to him started snickering.

“Bet you wish she was going out with mine instead of his, huh?”

“Boruto’s goal in life is to be me. I don’t even want to be me. I definitely don’t want my daughter dating someone who wants to be me, but Sakura says if I try and interfere I’d sleep on the couch the rest of my life and she’d kick my butt.” He huffed. “If she has to date, a boy like yours would be ideal. With any luck putting moves on her would be too troublesome for the first year.”

“That’s why I’m happy I’ve got a boy.”

“Hn.” The Uchiha grunted, looking back to his little boy. He was starting to look bored. It wouldn’t be long before he started fussing. Not on his watch.

He molded the tiniest bit of chakra into his finger tips before muttering a few words and applying a lightning nature, making his fingers like static electricity factories. He leaned into the boys eye sight, startling the unaware Shikamaru. He started bringing his hand around his hair, closer and then further away, dragging his hair with as it gravitated to his fingers. Satoshi’s face light up and he starting giggling uncontrollably, that made Sasuke’s own lips quirk up a bit. He had such a cute laugh. He started waving his fingers over the little dudes hair, making him go slightly cross eyed trying to see, though the giggling never stops. He releases he jutsu and then boops him on the nose. The baby tried to look at his own nose and Sasuke couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. So cute.

“Having fun?” Shikamaru asked dryly and Sasuke straightened up and atleast had the sense to look embarrassed. 

“He looked bored.”

“I get it.” Silence. “Saw you were looking at the women. Wondering what they were talking about?”

“Mhm.” 

“Gossiping, probably.”

“Can’t be anything good.”

“So troublesome. The last time we did one of these things, for the next several weeks Ino and Sakura looked at me like I was a freak. Karui would look at my crotch. I don’t think I wanna know what my wife told them.” Sasuke’s face didn’t change but he started to exude an aura of dread. Shikamaru laughed. 

————————————————————————

It was a peaceful night, Satoshi was sleeping peacefully, Sarada was on a C class escort mission to a town on the other end of the land of fire with Boruto, and Sakura was laying on her side next to him. Her breathing was soft but measured, meaning that she was still awake. He took the time to take her in. Her hair was ruffled from the baby pulling on it and her time laying in bed, skin was glowing in the light of the candle that Sasuke had lit to read a scroll. Her body was soft, but still slender. She was still hanging onto a bit of weight from the baby, but honestly he liked her better with it, it was cute. She was like this in the years after Sarada was born, losing most of weight quickly because of how active she is but hanging onto a bit for years after. He remembered the time he came back after ten years and her fingers were slimmer and felt bad for missing so much. It had been worth it, because the information he had from both tracking down information helped them deal with the ootsuki quickly when they finally appeared because what would be the point of him doing all that if he didn’t really learn anything about the enemy that was helpful and they just got blown away. That’d be stupid and would make one wonder why he was away for so long. 

After about a month in therapy they had reached the subject of intimacy. Rather, Sasuke and and his therapist started a several month argument about it. Sasuke thought that it wasn’t nessary as it related to physicality. Giving into touchy feel-y impulses would pull him away from being a good Shinobi. Emotions and worldly attachments were tended to get in the way of that. One needed to detach oneself and be at peace to be a perfect ninja, or so he had been told most of his time in the academy. His therapist, I. The last session, brought up that Naruto and Hashirama are (were in the latter’s case) the villages strongest hokage, some of the strongest ninja to live. The Uchiha’s power is derived from their strong feelings. They argued that it didn’t matter how big the feeling were, as long as they all flowed the way they are supposed to. Becoming taciturn is only one way to do it. Sasuke conceded to their point and agreed to think more on it.

Sakura and he rarely touched outside of sex. Sex was never romantic, though they were both very good at it. It was a pure expression of love, which was its own sort of intimate even if they never engaged in what some might engage in romantic behaviors. Sasuke’s therapist had been talking to him about that too. He had what was called ‘sex hang ups’ caused by his strict, conservative upbringing and self hatred over his past actions. His therapist had also been working towards convincing him that it was okay to be sweet with his wife. And he was trying, doing small things, but right now... he really wanted to touch her. Not in a sexual way, he just wanted to hold her, maybe give her a few smooches on the neck. It seemed too inappropriate and more then he ever deserved at the same time. It baffled him all the time that Sakura could still love him, that she loved him long enough for him to love her back. Loved him enough to try and kill him herself before giving up on him. That she loved him enough to track him down and join him in his travels. The only people who might love him as much as her was his brother or Naruto, even if their sort of love is different. 

Sometimes it didn’t feel real. That he’d wake up one day in his jail cell, and all this would be a dream. Because he didn’t deserve it. 

But he did, he reminded himself. He had put in the work. He’d saved countless lives, and he resolves himself everyday to never fall to evil again. More over, even if it didn’t resolve him of responsibility, he could now acknowledge he was manipulated. His brother, Orochimaru, Obito. They manipulated him until he wasn’t the person he was supposed to be anymore. He was a happy child, he wanted to protect the village as a police officer. It was simple, sweet. Itachi forced that dream to change when he pushed him towards revenge. Orochimaru took advantage of him with promises of power, and further warped his mind against the leaf. While he mostly blocked it out, he’d be lying if he said that the snake man’s rambling didn’t seep in and make it easier to turn on the village when the time came that he found the truth. Obito showed up to take advantage of that to use him. He still made those choices, and he’s always be sorry for them... but he could now acknowledge that he’d been taken advantage of by multiple adults. It wasn’t as black and white as he always thought. He could have nice things, he’d fought for it.

Sitting his scroll down and blowing out the candle, the Uchiha settled down. After covering himself in blankets, he rolled on his side towards his wife. Her outline was still visible from the light coming through the window. The former missing nin reached out, slowly, hesitating for a moment before putting a hand on her waist and drawing her close. Sakura tensed for a second, but relaxed quickly as Sasuke rested his chin on top of her head and lifted his leg so his knee was resting over her thigh. Sasuke relaxed at that, an irrational part of himself worried she might reject it, taking in a breath through his nose in relief. With the breath, he caught a wifi of her hair. Whatever she used made her hair smell like lilies, and Sasuke found himself smiling, melting further into her. He could feel her body heat, her breathing, her heart beat, it tethered him to reality. She was here, alive. He hadn’t killed her, she was safe here in his arms. This was real.

“Sasuke, are you okay...?” Sakura whispered softly. It wasn’t that she minded the holding, but Sasuke never did this before. He was always reserved in his touches.

“Hn.” He grunted an affirmative, holding her tighter. “Just... wanted to.”

“Oh... it’s nice. Thank you.” And suddenly Sasuke felt struck as she said that and nuzzled back into him. This... shouldn’t be the type of thing that a wife thanks a husband for. That should be reserved for bigger things, not what some might consider basic affection. The Uchiha is reminded, not for the first time, that he’s been a bad husband, father... but now he feels comfortable saying something.

“Sakura... I’m sorry... I haven’t been a good husband.” It was quiet, and vague, but filled with as much emotion as he could muster in the hopes to communicate not only everything he was apologizing for but the depth of how sorry he was.

“... It’s okay, Darling. You’ve always been doing your best. I understand. You’ve always expressed yourself differently, but of course you did between your upbringing and your trauma. You’ve done everything you can to protect the us and the village. You’re learning. It’s fine.” 

Sasuke didn’t know what to say to that, so he kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes.

————————————————————————

Sasuke was conflicted. He had a recent breakthrough in therapy, a bold realization.

He... didn’t want to live in the village anymore. He didn’t hold any ill will towards the village, he was fond of many of the people inside it. But, the place just had too much history there. No matter how much he healed and came to understand what happened, this would always be the place that turned his brother against their clan, where his family died, a place where evil seemed to spring forth from. The village, no matter how innocent it may be, was the source of all his pain, and made him hurt the people he cared about. If Naruto asked, he’d always want to help. If it was in big enough danger, he might come unprompted.

It had started when Sakura got pregnant with their third child, and even if he was happy, there was an undercurrent of worry. When they dug into it at therapy... it opened a can of ugliness. He was nervous about properly restarting the clan here, the place that was responsible for its original downfall. He always hesitated to return and stay in the village in the past because even if he vowed to protect it, deep down he still resented it. He hated this. He couldn’t leave, it was treason, and his family loved this place, it was their home, so what was he supposed to do? 

“What’s wrong?” Naruto, that annoying jackass, said from behind his perch.

“I don’t remember calling for you.”

“I’m a shadow clone, I was patrolling the area. I noticed that it wasn’t exploding as much.” The clone shrugged. This was Sasuke’s designated training area. Since all this began he’d been training more, practicing jutsus he’d picked up and conducting research on kekkei genkai. There was a lot of exploding involved, it was why Naruto have him an area. 

“I’m just thinking.”

“I can tell something is wrong. If it’s something important, you can tell me and I can disperse myself to get the info back to the original.” 

“... I can’t.”

“No, we aren’t doing this. You know the rules, no secrets! The last time you got like this you left- ... wait. Sasuke, you’re not...”

“It’s... so hard being here sometimes. To walk around and know that it was built on the blood of the Uchiha’s... and of the other clans! The Senju are the only one of the great clans that’s still around that aren’t down to under 3 members, or has a curse mark that can kill them, and that’s only because the only special about them is they have large chakra reserves. Sometimes it’s fine, but other times it’s like walking through a graveyard. Sakura... she’s pregnant again.”

“Sasuke, that’s great, but what does that have to do with this?” The Naruto clone sat by Sasuke, who had put his head in his hands.

“We are going to have another baby... we are giving the clan a good new start. For the longest time I was more focused on saving the clans reputation. But then Sakura pointed out if the clan disappeared after that, it would eventually become a legend. If I truly wanted to revive the clan... we should have more kids. So now she’s pregnant... and we are planning on having a couple more after, to give the clan a big fresh start and to take some pressure off the kids from a... reproductive standpoint. We’ve even considered asking around to see if some people might surrogate a child.”

“To start of with more genetic diversity.” 

“Right...” Sasuke took a deep breath. “So, we are really starting to rebuild the clan, and I... don’t feel safe doing it here. What if, down the line, when I’m old or gone, and there are a couple dozen of my grandkids and great-grandkids are running around, excelling and being protege, like the Uchiha they are. And people get jealous, and suddenly... something happens.” 

“I’d never let that happen!”

“The 3rd Hokage didn’t want anything to happen either!” Sasuke yelled, finally looking angry, turning to the clone of his best friend. “He wanted to solve things peacefully, but it was taken out of his hands! Even you can’t stop all evil! What if a new Danzo pops up? Hm?”

“I-“

“You’ll what? You’re soft, Naruto, and people like Danzo don’t stop until you kill them. If someone like him popped up, you’d give them a million chances, and that’s great. I wouldn’t be here if you didn’t, but it could threaten the continuation of my clan. I know the chance isn’t large, but...” Sasuke lost his words, tired of speaking already, but Naruto understood.

“You can’t shake it.” Naruto sighed. “You’re right, Danzo’s type are crafty, for all we know we’ve already got one right under our noses and we don’t know...”

“I don’t want to tear my family away from their home... and I don’t want to stop protect the village... I would just feel safer if I weren’t here.”

“I... I understand. I think we should all get together and discuss it. We’ve made exceptions for ninja leaving the village, if Sakura agrees, we’ll talk about what happens from there. Just promise that if you leave... you’ll still keep in contact. We all care about you, and we want to know what’s up with you.”

“Okay. Thank you.” 

Sakura agreed to leaving. Sarada did too, as long as she could still go on missions for the leaf. Naruto agreed that whatever settlement they ended up setting up, they’d be considered friendly, and they would still be asked to go on missions, they would just be classified as joint missions. Sasuke was... so touched they would do this for him. They understood him, further cementing Naruto’s sentiments about sharing pain through friendship. They felt his pain, and were will to do anything to help him. They packed up, got the mailing addresses for their friends, and headed out. But on the way out of town, they got a little surprise. Some Shins.

At least three, two appeared to be older, likely do to some genetic growth anomaly, and they had all changed their appearances. The smallest one had dyed his hair black, and was wearing a blue cloak with grey shorts and black sandals. One had blonde hair now and was wearing red, the other had kept there white hair and was wearing dark grey. Both the older Shins were holding hands with girls about their age.

“... Shins...” Sasuke hissed through clenched teeth.

“We don’t go by that anymore.” Blonde said. “Kabuto encouraged us to forge our own identities. Most of us have picked new names. I go by Yabu.”

“I’m Ryu now.” Said the one in grey.

“I’m Obi.” Said the little one. 

“These are our girlfriends, Hima,” Yabu gestured to his girl. “And Menma.”

“Mister Uchiha, we know you don’t consider us true Uchiha... but we would like to join you. We want to settle down away from here... after the news broke plenty of us left, but we were attached.”

“They didn’t want to leave us... we want to get married one day... and don’t think it’ll be safe here.” Menma pleaded, squeezing Ryu’s hand. “Please, sir. I’ve got lots of useful skills. We all do. We just want a safe place to settle down.”

“... And you?” Sasuke said to the littlest one.

“I just want to finish growing up somewhere safe with my brothers.”

“I think we should take them.” Sarada murmured to her father. “Their future generations will be just at risk here.”

“Even if you aren’t true Uchiha... you do bare the family eyes, and could be targeted. You can come, but I am the clan head, you have to follow orders.” Sasuke glared down and all the shin nodded eagerly.

“Yes sir!”

They would end up setting up shop in an old Uchiha hideout, quickly starting a farm, setting up room to ferment and preserve foods for when winter came. They quickly fortified the area and alerted Naruto to where they had set up. 

The place grew over the years, with Sakura and Sasuke having a total of six children (the last pregnancy had been twins), with most of them having children themselves. Yabu, Ryu, and Obi would grow to get married and each have at least one child. They had taken in a few more defectors, over the years, including even a Hyuga, who was now their chief of security in charge of patrols. Sakura was the doctor, with two of her children trained under her as medical nin. They had become a small village in their own right, with a third generation of villagers set arrive with the pregnancy of Sarada and Boruto’s Daughter and the pregnancy of Ryu’s oldest grandchild’s wife. The village ran made money selling pasteries Yabu’s family made, and doing missions for the hidden villages. The village had good communication with them, though none of them had power over them. Things for Sasuke were finally... peaceful.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry the you read this whole mess. Your a trooper! If you have a favorite part of this mess, let me know, and I hope I didn’t get too much of my Sasuke fangirl-ness all over this.


End file.
